Aion 4.0 - due 26 June
First off - I need to clarify. The subject refers to the North American servers only. I have no idea when this will launch on the EU servers - but at best they are usually several months behind.
I could also add that the EU servers are so badly managed that hordes of European players are now playing on the NA servers - so there's that.
Anyways - moving on - the next expansion for Aion: Dark Betrayal is going live on the 26th of this month. The expansion will be introducing:
- New zones: Katalam and Danaria
- New instances and dungeons
- A new Balaur boss to take on
- New Skills
- Level cap increase to 65
- 2 New classes
Dark Betrayal site
The two new classes are:
The Gunslinger
The Gunslinger is a new class introduced after cutting edge research allowed researchers to compress aether into cartridge shells which led to the development of powerful new weapons - pistols and aethercannnons.
Based on the video the Gunslinger appears to be a leather-armored character, and as such they are focused on achieving a high-level of mobility and relatively high damage output.
The Gunslinger uses dual-wielded pistols for rapid-hitting and high-mobility attacks, and can switch to a heavy cannon for low-mobility, but slow, massive damage and aoe attacks.
The Songweaver
The Bards of Atreia lost their voice after Lady Siel sacrificed herself, and many disappeared, but those that continued their craft found that weaving the power of aether into their music produced startling results, and calling themselves Songweavers, once again they stepped forward into battle, weakening their enemies while providing their allies with strength.
The Songweaver is a cloth-armored character, and appears to be a mixture of cleric, chanter and traditional casters (spiritmaster/sorcerer) - and provides buffs to their allies while debuffing their enemies.
Their combat effectiveness is a bit of a mystery at the moment, and I question the wisdom of adding yet another buffing/support class (since the chanter already fulfills that role quite ably), but I'm definitely going to take one for a spin.
Here's a preview vid of the classes in action:
